Thomas Friedman, a well-known columnist for The New York Times, recently featured the Creative Campus program at The University of Alabama in his book, “That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back.” The book, which was released in September, outlines how America has fallen behind in various sectors of the international community and what it can do to “come back” to its past glory.
The title comes from a quote delivered by President Barack Obama in November of 2010.
“It makes no sense for China to have better rail systems than us, and Singapore having better airports than us,” Obama said. “And we just learned that China now has the fastest supercomputer on Earth – that used to be us.”
The writing duo, Thomas Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum, the director of the American Foreign Policy Program at John Hopkins University, searched for groups across the country that worked towards creating a generation of Americans that dream big and deliver. This past year, they found Creative Campus and wrote about it in a section titled “Creative Crimson Tide.”
“We believe that creativity will have even greater importance in the future, that our schools and universities should try to teach or at least encourage it, and that the Alabama Creative Campus is an interesting effort to do just that,” Mandelbaum said.
Creative Campus is a think tank organization that works on various cultural arts projects in and around the Capstone. They are well known for the annual “Quidditch on the Quad” tournament and various other festivals and initiatives.
“Because we have a substantial number of new interns each year, the nature of Creative Campus and the kinds of projects we do will change every year,” said Executive Director Hank Lazer. “It’s that inevitability of change that makes this a great place to work. There is very little repetition, very little of ‘because that’s what we did before mentality.’”
Creative Campus hires 40 interns a year who are paid between $8 and $10 an hour for roughly 10 hours of work a week. The interns are expected to work together in coming up with ideas that “fuse and promote the artistic life of the surrounding community,” Lazer said.
Alexandra Tucci, a senior majoring in international studies and advertising, describes the process: “Creative Campus is very team oriented. Typically, we have one intern who takes the project lead. But that does not mean that person is the only one who works on the project.”
Located in Maxwell Hall, one of the oldest buildings on campus, Creative Campus has a unique view of campus life.
“If you visit Maxwell Hall, as soon as you step inside our building, the arrangement of the space will let you know you are somewhere with a high level of collaboration, innovation and energy,” Lazer said.
Maxwell used to house the University’s observatory before the Civil War. The building was heavily damaged when the Union army ransacked it in 1865.
Today, in the center of the front room, sits a large, damaged, concrete base that used to hold the telescope. The stark white pillar stretches towards the domed roof. It is signed by all of those who have participated in Creative Campus through its five-year history.
It can be taken as a strangely symbolic scene, especially when contrasting it with the message of Mandelbaum and Friedman.
“We continue to believe in America’s promise,” Mandelbaum said. “In the book, we give examples of people whose energy, talent, drive and creativity make this country special. We are both optimists, although frustrated optimists.”
